Obama to Public: No Photos for You!

I completely agree with Obama’s decision to reverse his earlier decision on making hundreds of potential Abu Graib-like photos available to the public. They would do no good during wartime except to foment more enemies, alienate those we’ve made progress with, and make our soldiers more appetizing targets for moderate jihadists (you know, those that only blow things up on the weekends). So, he’s decided to take sane advice and keep the photos obscured for now.

Agreeing with Obama feels a little weird — it’s a rare thing. In the face of FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) and the ACLU he did the right thing. But I still do need to criticize him on a part of this.

He’s coming off like some of my students who want extra credit for doing things they should be doing anyway. Obama’s instinct to even entertain releasing these kinds of photos with troops in the field or to just go with the flow and follow the Pentagon’s skewed rationale is scary enough as it is. This decision was obvious. The notion that his initial impulse was wrong makes me continue to harbor deep doubts about that 3am call coming down the pike one day.

Yes, Obama did make a good move today on the release of the photos, he could do little else. However, some of the reasoning for this action are questionable, nevertheless he must be given some credit for finally coming to this senses.